Why I quit?

“Why did I quit?”

No, I didn’t quit from smoking nor from work. I never smoked anyways. This question was posed to a Linux kernel developer Con Kolivas—and yes, he’s the one in the picture.

What impressed me about him is that he was never a Computer Science student. He was actually an anaesthetist at a hospital in Melbourne.

You can click this link to read the full text of his interview: Interview Con Kolivas

So, why did he quit? To quote:

“So I still haven't answered your question about what made me stop kernel
development have I? I guess explaining my motivations helps me explain why I
stopped.

“The user response was still there. If anything, the users got
more vocal than ever as I was announcing quitting kernel development…
“The
intellectual challenge? Well that still existed of course…
“The fun? Yes
that's what was killed. It stopped being fun…”

Very well said, “it stopped being fun”. So, am I having fun or am I going to follow the same incantation this cool guy speaks?

I just realized that the problem with me is that I have this big insatiable devourer of knowledge and learning. Maybe some will argue that it’s not a bad thing, but in my case it does. It’s like hopping to different ideas every now and then, always wandering on what’s not boring—in the end it just results to a half-filled bottle of learning. It’s like a lukewarm feeling of knowing something, you cannot firmly say YES nor can you say NO.

Everyday it haunts me; I’m on the prime age of my life. This is the moment I should be triumphing over myself and doing those daunting challenges that would really mark a dent in my personal history. And the time is beating faster than my heart.